Top speed 160 km/h Length 6.8 m Manufacturer Fouga | Wingspan 12 m First flight 1932 | |
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The Mauboussin M.120 was a trainer and touring aircraft built in France in the 1930s and again in the years following World War II.
Contents
Design and production
It was based on a 1931 Peyret-Mauboussin collaboration between Louis Peyret and Pierre Mauboussin, the Peyret-Mauboussin PM.XII, and like it, was a low-wing cantilever monoplane of wooden construction. The undercarriage was of fixed tailskid type, and the pilot and instructor sat in tandem, open cockpits. Mauboussin built a number of prototypes himself, followed by a small series manufactured for him by Breguet in 1934.
At one stage Mauboussins were produced by the Société Zodiac.
In 1936, Fouga, then a builder of railway rolling stock, purchased all rights to the design as part of an effort to enter the aircraft industry and was able to secure a contract from the Armée de l'Air to supply the type as the M.123.
Production was restarted by Fouga after the war for the French flying clubs.
Operations
One of first M.120s took part in the international touring aircraft contest Challenge 1932, flown by André Nicolle. It completed contest on the last 24th place, but it had the weakest engine of all participants and completing this contest was quite a success anyway. Two competed the following year, one of them with an all-women crew for probably the first time. Again, low engine power left them low in the final table.
After the Angers competition on 2 August 1933, one of the women (Hélène Boucher) set a new women's world altitude record at 5,900 metres (19,357 ft) in the M.120. In 1935 Maryse Hilsz increased it to 7,388 m (24,239 ft) on 24 September in the M.122.
Variants
Operators
Specifications (M.123)
General characteristics
Performance